Means for automatically stopping a motor vehicle when a dangerous place occurs in a road



July 21, .1936. B. H. DICKS 2,048,434 f MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY STOPPINGA MOTOR VEHICLE WHEN A DANGEROUS PLACE OCCURS IN A ROAD Filed Aug. 12,1935 4 Sheets-Sheet l 1 Inventor I 9 ,zmz fard j/drald licks RE By MEANSFOR AUTOMATICALLY STOPPING A MOTOR VEHICLE WHEN A DANGEROUS PLACE OCOURSIN A ROAD July 21, 1936. B. H. DICKS 2,048,434

' Filed Aug. 1-2, 1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 O Q 6 O I I I I I I 0 I I oPOUTE-ZI WILSON HIGHWAY WASHINCTON ("MILES T0 BALTIMORE a CROSS 190A 0S-CURVE Inventor a By O i Altomey July 21, 1936. B. H. DICKS 2,048,434

MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY STOPPING A MOTOIA VEHICLE WHEN A DANGEROUS PLACEOCGURS IN A ROAD Filed Aug. 12, 1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 lnvenlo'r BeaafardHar-old ,Fz'cks A Home];

July 21, 193B.

MEANS F B H DICKS 2,043,434

OR AUTOMATICALL STOPPING A MOTOR VEHICLE WHEN A DANGEROUS PLACE OGCURSIN A ROAD Filed Aug. 12, 1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Inventor AttorneyPatented July 21, 1936 UNITED STATES MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY STOPPING AMOTOR VEHICLE WHEN A DANGEROUS- PLACE ocoons INAROAD Beauford HaroldDicks, Waupun, Wis. Application August 12, 1935 Serial No. 35,897

3 Claims.

This invention relates to route strip controlled means for automaticallystopping a motor vehicle when a dangerous place occurs in the road aheadof the vehicle, the general object of the invention being to providemeans controlled by a route strip for automatically applying the brakes,opening the ignition circuit and closing the gasoline line as the stripindicates that a bad curve, a railroad crossing, an intersection or thelike is being approached.

The present invention is an improvement over that forming the subjectmatter of my Patent No. 1,998,535 dated April 23, 1935.

This invention also consists in certain other ifeatures of constructionand in the combination and arrangement of several parts, to behereinafter fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawingsand specifically pointed out in the appended claims.

In describing the invention in detail, reference. willbe had to theaccompanying drawings wherein like characters denote likeorcorresponding parts throughout the several views, and in Which:--

Figure 1 is a plan View ofthe chassis of a motor vehicle showing theinvention applied thereto.

Figure 2 is a section on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a view of the switch and plunger box in section. I

Figure 4 is a sectional view through the dog assembly.

Figure 5 is a front view of the casing containing the route strip andparts of the present invention and which is adapted to be located on theinstrument board.

Figure 6 is a view similar to' Figure 5 with the parts broken away.

Figure 7 is a view of the on the instrument board.

Figure 8 is a view of the perforated part of the manual control meansroute strip with the contacting members,

Figure 9 is a section on the line 9-9 of Figure 8.

Figure 10 Ba view of the signal casing.

Figure 11 is a section on the line l l -l I of Figure 10. a

Figure 12 is a fragmentary view of the com bined route and contactstrip.

Figure 13 is a diagrammatic View of the circuits.

In these views the letter Aindicates a casing which may be carried bythe instrument board of an automobile and in which is located the spoolsI for carrying the combined route strip and contact strip shown at B inFigure 12 These spools are operated in any Suitable manner from thespeedometer of the vehicle, a portion of the connection being shown at 2in Figures 5 and 6 and these means are controlled through the knobs 3and as such means form the subject matterof the above mentioned patentit is not thought necessary to describe them in this application. 5..

The strip B includes the route strip part 4 for appearing at the window5 in the casing A and the strip part 6 which has the perforations orholes! therein, this part 6 passing across an openingin the front of thecasingA which is normally closed 10 by a door 8.

A pair of insulation strips 9 are supported in spaced relation in thecasing, from atop part. thereof by a bracket Ill which is connected withthe supporting member I I which is connected 1:") with the strips 9. Thepart 6 of the combination strip B passes between the strips or blocks 9.and each block 9 carries a vertical row of spaced contact strips !2which have the conductors l3 connected to one end thereof, the otherends of the 20 pairs of strips converging so thatthese. converge ingends will come into contact with each other when a hole 1 in the stripBcomes opposite them.

I preferto make the door 8 with an oii'set portion so-that the parts canextendinto the same to. permit the strip B to pass close to the innerface of the front of the casing so that the indication on the part 4 ofthe strip can be readily observed through the window 5.

A casing C is suitably supported by the chassis 9 of the automobile asshown in Figure 1 and said casing contains a rotatably supported drum Mwhich is provided with a spiral groove IS. A motor M has its shaft l6connected with the shaft of the drum so that the drum will be rotated bythe motor and a shaft I! is journaled in the casin C and has a spiralrib I8 thereon and said shaft I1 is driven from the motor shaft by meansof the gearing IS. A rod 20 is slidably supported in the casing and hasits rear end connected by a link 2| to the brake shaft 22 of thevehicle, as shown in Figure l; and the front end of the rod within thecasing carries a hollow head 23 through which passes a dog 24 normallypressed downwardly by a spring 25 within the head. The lower end of thisdog, when the dog is in lowered posi tion engages the groove l5 so thatwhen the drum is rotated the rod 20 will be moved rearwardly to applythe brakes, Figure 2 showing the parts in the position where the dog isin its rearward position. The upper part of the dog 24 is formed withrack teeth engaged by the segmental gear 26 pivotally supported on apart of the head 23 and a long arm 27 and'a shortarm 28 are connectedwith the segmental gear, the short arm having a head 29 at its upper endwhich will engage a stop member 30 when the brake rod nears the end ofthe rearward movement. When this happens the short arm will be thrown tothe left in Figure 2 which will partly rotate the segmental gear so asto lift the dog out of engagement with the groove l5 and to throw thearm 21 into engagement with the spiral rib of the shaft l1 so that thisshaft will cause the dog, the brake rod 20 and the parts associatedtherewith to move forwardly to their original position and thus thebrakes will be released.

As the rod 20 moves rearwardly to brake applying position a part 38 willstrike a head on an arm 3| which is connected to a valve in a housing32, said valve controlling the flow of gasoline to the motor of theengine, some of the connecting pipes being shown at 33. This movement ofthe arm 3| will also open the ignition switch located in the housing 34,the wires being shown at 35. The arm of the switch is shown at 36 andthe two arms 3| and 36 are connected together by a link 31. The part 38is in the form of an upright which will strike the lower end of the arm3! as this rod 20 moves to the rear and thus the gasoline to the motorwill be out off and the ignition circuit broken as the brakes are beingapplied so that the vehicle will come to a stop. 5 A link 39 connectsthe arm36 to an operating member 40 on the instrument board 4| of thevehicle as shown in Figure I so that when it is desired to start thevehicle again this member 49 is pushed inwardly to cause the link 39 toswing the arms 3| and 36 in a normal operative position so that gas canagain flow to the engine and the ignition circuit will be closed.

A magnet 42 is located in a part of the casing C and is provided with abell crank armature 43 pivoted to a bracket 44 in the casing, thearmature being normally held away from the core of the magnet by aspring 45. A box 46 is supported in the upper part of the casing C andcarries a spring-pressed plunger 41 which will be forced against theaction of the spring 48 by the arm 21 when the parts are returned totheir normal position by the shaft l1 and when'this happens the plungerwill open a double switch 49 which is pivoted to a part of the box 46 soas to move the switch to open position. When this switch is in closedposition it connects the contacts 50 of the circuit 5| of the motor Mwith the contacts 52 one of which is connected by a conductor 53 withthe battery 54 and the other of which is connected by a conductor 55with the bell crank armature 43. This armature when at tracted by themagnet 42 will engage a contact 58 which is connected with the magnet bya conductor 51 and the other terminal of the magnet is connected by aconductor 58 with the battery 54. The conductors |3 leading from thestrips l2 of each pair of strips, are connected one with the conductor53 and the other with the conductor'5l as shown in Figure 13 and one ofsaid conductors I3 is electrically connected with a buzzer or the likeshown at 59 in Figure 13 and these conductors |3 are also electricallyconnected with the lamp bulbs 60 arranged in chambers 6| in a casing 62arranged on the instrument board or any other suitable place of a motorvehicle. In front of each chamber is a sign 63 which will be illuminatedwhen the lamp associated therewith is lighted. These signs indicatingthe state of the road ahead of the motor vehicle.

A link 64 is connected to the memb r 0 a shown in Figure 7 and saidlink, as shown in Figure 2, is connected to a lever 65 for closing theswitch 49 when it is desired to close the switch by hand.

It will, of course, be understood that the perforations in the part 6 ofthe route strip B are so located with respect to hazardous parts of theroad ahead as to come under the contact strips |2 before the dangerouspart of the road is reached. For instance, suppose the vehicle havingthe invention thereon is approaching a railroad track and at a certaintime before the track is reached an opening '7 will come between thebent ends of a pair of these strips l2 and when this happens the bentends of the two strips will touch each other and thus the circuit to thebuzzer 59 will be closed and the circuit to that lamp in rear of therailroad crossing sign i3 will be closed so that the buzzer will soundand a sign will be illuminated and at the same time the circuit to themagnet 42 will be closed and the energizing of this magnet 42 willattract the armature 43 which is normally held away from the magnet bythe spring 45, and this will close the circuit to the motor M. The motorwill then begin to operate and thus the dog which is in engagement withthe front end of the groove i5 in the drum l4 will start to move the rod29 rearwardly to apply the brakes, it being understood that as the arm21 strikes the plunger 41 and moves the same the arm will be thrown tothe position shown in Figure 2 so that the dog will be in loweredposition and the arm will be out of engagement with the bar I8 of theshaft ll.

As the rod 29 moves rearwardly the member 38 will strike the rod 3| andthus close the gasoline line to the motor of the engine and break theignition circuit so that the motor will stop. Then when the dog is atthe end of its rearward stroke the arm 28 will strike the projection 30so that the dog Will be lifted out of the groove l5 and the-- arm 21thrown into engagement with the l spiral I8 and thus the parts will bereturned to their normal position and at the end of this return movementthe plunger 41 will be operated to open the switch 49 which will breakthe circuit in'the motor M. Then the operator pushes the plunger member40 to open the gasoline line and close the ignition circuit and thismovement of the member 40 will cause the link 54 and lever 65 to closethe switch 49 but as the imperforate part of the strip B passes inbetween the strips |2 no current'will flow to the motor. When thecircuit is broken the circuit to the magnet 42 will also be broken sothat the spring 45 will move the member 43 to inoperative position andthus breaking the circuit at 56 so that when the switch 49 is closed nocurrent will flow through the motor M until another hole in the strip Bcomes opposite a pair of the strips l2.

Of course, the driver can tell from thepart 4 of the strip B thecondition of the road ahead.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided means wherebythe driver or occupant of an automobile can ascertain the condition ofthe road ahead of him and when a dangerous place in the road is beingapproached a buzzer will sound and a sign indicating such condition willbe illuminated and then the vehicle will be stopped by the applicationof the brakes and the It is to be understood that changes may be made inthe construction and in the combination and arrangement of the severalparts, provided that such changes fall within the scope of the appendedclaims.

While the device is shown in use on a motor vehicle, it is to beunderstood that it can be used with but slight change on railroad trainsfor automatically stopping the same at any desired place and forinforming the passengers of the names of the towns and cities they areapproaching and the device can be used with the aid of short-wave radiosin controlling traflic in accordance with the stop and go signal system.

What is claimed is:

1. In an automobile, a spirally grooved drum, a motor for driving thesame, a brake applying rod, a dog carried thereby and. engaging thegroove, means for" releasing the dog from the groove when the rod isbeing moved to brake applying position, means operated by the motor forreturning the parts to the original position to release the brakes,means for closing the gasoline line and breaking the ignition circuit ofthe automobile when the rod moves to brake applying position, manuallyoperated means for opening the line and closing the ignition circuit, aroute strip actuated from a movable part of the automobile and means forcontrolling the circuit of the drumdriving motor by said strip.

2. In an automobile, a spirally grooved drum, a motor for driving thesame, a brake applying rod, a dog carried thereby and engaging thegroove, means for releasing the dog from the position, manually operatedgroove when the rod is being moved to brake applying position, meansoperated by the motor for returning the parts to the original positionto release the brakes, means for closing the gasoline line and breakingthe ignition circuit of the automobile when the rod moves to brakeapplying position, manually operated means for opening the line andclosing the ignition circuit, a route strip actuated from a movable partof the automobile and means for controlling the circuit of the drumdriving motor by said strip, said means including a magnet, a switchclosed when the magnet is energized, a second switch, means for openingthe second switch when the brake applying rod is moved back to itsoriginal means for closing the second switch, said switches controllinga circuit to the motor and the magnet.

3. In a motor vehicle, a reciprocating member, means operated bymovement of said member in one direction for stopping the vehicle, apair of members, one reciprocating the reciprocating member in onedirection and the other in the opposite direction, a motor for actuatingsaid pair of members, automatic means for engaging the reciprocatorymember with one of the pair of members and disengaging it from thesecond one of said. pair of members at the ends of the strokes of thereciprocatory member, a route strip actuated from a movable part of thevehicle, and means for controlling the circuit of the motor by saidstrip.

BEAUFORD HAROLD DICKS.

